The mountains around Mae Sot and the Burmese border are full of lush green forests, chrystal rivers that ebb and flow down through huge waterfalls, where one can raft and canyon and in the evening can watch the sun go down through perfect clear mountain visibility with a cool beer chiang one's hand. Unfortunately for me this is true for nine months of the year, the other three months of the year, the very aptly named hot season, the whole area is flash burned to promote growth for the coming year which means for me a visibility of about 500 metres and a constant stinging of the eyes, its like being back in Bangkok.Yesterdays cycle could well of been the hardest in my life, 87km in 8 hours, not a great average speed! A few stats for you cycle buffs out there, my fastest speed yesterday was 64kmph and my average speed on steep climbs was a demoralising 7.8kmph, for 9km I clung on to the back of a truck who just about went faster then me at 9.2kmph on steep climbs, but being behind trucks fumes for that long finally got ther better of me so I let go to refuel, I regretted that 10 minutes later on the next climb. The day finished sweetly though as I arrived in my guesthouse to find a Thai family about to start eating who promptly invited me to join them, and what a feast to be had washed down by ice cool beer and a mix mash of broken english chatter and a lot of misunderstood laughter then to bed where I slept for 13 hours straight.
Today was decision time to stay on my proposed course and battle through the smoke and hope for a clearing or return to the plains and head to Chiang Mai the easy way, after humming and hawing over my map I decided to take it slow in the mountains as the other route is mainly highways. To celebrate this conclusion I went 10 km to the burmese boarder to maybe go there for the day and get another stamp on the old passport, but no such luck the "friendship bridge", which was not actually that friendly, was closed due to a Thai soldier getting shot on the boarder during the week, another time maybe.
So onwards and upwards to Mae Salit, where hopefully gale force winds are brewing to clear this wretched smoke away.
3 comments:
hay will your doing well keep it up, ive been meaning to write something underhanded and cheaky, but i just cant bring myself to do it. truth be told im a tad envious, i know its not all sex and beer but its a fucking good adventure! your a strong man, at the end of the road ill have a pound of kerrygold waiting for you, if thats not incentive i dont know what is. keep trucking spanky!
You doing great Will...try not to kill yourseld with the long distances...plenty of time to go...if you need information on where to stay ect..post up where you attend going next and people can research on the web for you and let you know where to stay, where to eat and what to see...we will do some of the leg work for yeh on this end.
the 35 km whizz down hill really caught our imagination - it's been fun checking out your blog and seeing the photos- 5 of us had a great picnic in Avondale - Parnell's place in Co Wicklow today - your Mum brought some great cheeses and her dark chocolate covered ginger pieces - she has 2 amazing adventurous offspring - we're enjoying following your journey - all the very best from Mary McSweeney
Post a Comment